


Wind Through The Willows

by Symphoenae



Series: Soul Song AUniverse [2]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, More worldbuilding, Some Rayllum, Soul Song AU stuff, despite it not being canon to the au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23885395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symphoenae/pseuds/Symphoenae
Summary: One of the more interesting things that came from Callum's mind was the fact he could envision what a sound sounded like. Based on the sound it gave off he could picture a scene in his head for how the sound would look. Sometimes it was never anything more than an abstract mess, while other times he could find himself seeing whole scenes of vastly different landscapes and areas or anything else.
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Series: Soul Song AUniverse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721407
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Wind Through The Willows

**Author's Note:**

> First thing to note is that THIS IS NOT CANON TO THE SOUL SONG AU TIMELINE FROM SOS. Like I said in the description of the newly made Series that's gonna hold all of my shit for this AU, I can't give Callum every extra ability I can think of because not everything I think of really fits in with the plot. So I'm gonna just write out these little one-shots for the scrapped soul powers instead.
> 
> I know I haven't updated SOS in over 2 weeks I think now I'm sorry. I made a social media change and moved myself solely to one instagram account instead of multiple and it's my art account and all my motivation got sucked into doing paintings instead of writing. Here I am trying to restart my writing motivation bear with me
> 
> SONG COUNTERPART: Wind Through The Willows - World Of Goo OST

One of the more interesting things that came from Callum's mind was the fact he could envision what a sound sounded like. Based on the sound it gave off he could picture a scene in his head for how the sound would look. Sometimes it was never anything more than an abstract mess, while other times he could find himself seeing whole scenes of vastly different landscapes and areas or anything else. It was either solid or fluid, but both options gave way to interesting sights. A lot of the time he would end up drawing these scenes in his sketchbook as practice or warm-ups. But like almost everything else in his life, it all traced back to a song or two. Maybe even every single song in the galaxy if he had the choice.

The idea of envisioning anything else in his head was a bit of a coping mechanism for him as well- if he pretended hard enough, he could act like he was really there in that nowhere land of his mind, instead of the reality that always ended up disappointing him in one way or another. Though he made a habit of never going back to the same imaginary world twice- what was the point when you knew it was fake? After the first time, the real illusion was gone. He always made sure to try and draw the most interesting ones for memories, though.

But that was the thing. These imaginary getaways were supposed to be just that- imaginary. Dumb thoughts tied to him and him alone. Well, the universe decided that everything he thought was going to be defied at some point, sooner or later. So when he was hanging out with Rayla, his newest friend, in what was quickly becoming "their spot"- the Midnight Forest clearing where they'd first met- he expected nothing to come of it. The skies were nearly clear blue, the trees surrounding the area rustling faintly in the wind, vibrant colors everywhere. Callum had put his phone on repeat to play a certain song he'd found recently, despite this fact he'd already grown to love it immensely. It was a new song under his belt, and his thoughts slowly drifted to wondering what the image would be like coming from this song.

"Uh... Callum?" Came Rayla's voice, soft and confused.

Callum blinked, realizing that they were suddenly no longer in the Midnight Forest. They were sat together on their backs looking up at a speckled gray sky, wind howling in their ears as shaded, unidentifiable creatures flew overhead. Both he and Rayla jolted to their feet, finding that they were on a rocky ground that gave way to a massive cliff drop on nearly every side. Behind them sat shadowed ruins of civilization long gone, while peeking down to the drop they could see the final cloud layer between empty sky and solid ground. They were startled and confused, to say the least- Rayla more so. Callum, on the other hand, had an inkling of an explanation when he realized that while the forest had vanished around them, his phone had not. It still sang away with the song he'd put on loop before.

"Callum?!" Rayla prodded again, a little more fear edging into her voice.

"Well this wasn't what I was expecting." Callum mumbled softly, taking the replacement Soul Orb Rayla had given him after he'd broken the first out of his pocket. Sure enough, he noticed it was doing that faint glowing thing as if to say it was actively in use without it having been shattered. He showed it to Rayla calmly. "I must be doing another soul power again. Never actually seen this happen though. You can clearly see that we're somewhere else too, so it's not just in my head this time."

Rayla puffed out a breath, trying to keep her hair back as the stronger winds blew it about. "Okaaaay, that doesn't fully explain what the hell just happened. Where the hell are we?!"

Callum scanned their surroundings again. "Um... we're in the image of this song. It's a thing I do. I like to imagine how a song looks, every song looks different. But it's always been imaginary, all in my head. So this probably isn't real. I might have caused us to hallucinate, I'm not quite sure."

"Oh great, having hallucinations deep in a forest? There's a funny joke in there somewhere about takin' some mushrooms."

Callum snorted at that, before he took a few steps forward, nearer to the edge of the cliff they were standing on. Rayla eyed him carefully as he continued to walk, but she suddenly gasped when he got a certain point away.

"Oi! Callum you're gonna walk into a tree!" Rayla shouted at him.

"Oh relax, I wasn't gonna get any closer to the edge anyways." Callum replied casually, sitting himself down on the rock with his legs over the side.

"Uh, Callum? We're back in the forest. Are you good?"

He frowned. "No? I'm still in the... wherever this is." He paused. "Maybe it has a range? Come walk closer to me."

Rayla hesitated for a moment before doing as she was told. She blinked and stopped walking after a certain point. "Looks like you're right. I'm back in ruins-land with you."

He grinned. "I wonder what would happen if I tried jumping off the cliff. This isn't real after all, it probably won't kill me."

"NO!" Rayla shouted quickly, lunging over and practically hugging him from behind. "We don't know fully what this is and I don't want to risk seeing you plummet into nothingness, thank you!"

Callum's skin burned from where Rayla was flush against him near his back. He felt heat rising to his cheeks as he let out a cough. "Right, could you um. Let me go now? I promise I won't jump off cliffs."

Rayla noticed the close proximity she had initiated and nearly rocketed backwards from him in embarrassment. She was glad he couldn't quite see her face at that point- god knows it was redder than the scarf she'd seen him wear before. An awkward silence feel between them for a moment, before the landscape around them suddenly vanished as Callum's poor phone ran out of battery and shut down, killing the song with it.

"Aw." Callum mumbled. "Guess that's the end of that. Not that you really wanted to stay anyway."

Rayla seemed to ponder his last statement. "Actually... I didn't mind it. It was pretty cool, and it felt like we were the only two people left in the world. Don't you ever think about scenarios like that? Where everything is dead or abandoned or really on its last legs?"

"Have you _seen_ the list of music I listen to Rayla?"

"Fair." She said with a smirk, moving to sit right next to him again. "Do you think you could get it back with just your memory?"

Callum frowned for a second. What happened to his rule of never going back to an imaginary landscape? Part of him didn't want to break that self-placed rule. But then again, it was for Rayla. So he swallowed his pride over a stupid little thing, focused on the song, the image, and the soul orb in his hand, and the landscape soon returned around them. It was truly a different experience. He found himself content to just sit on the imaginary cliff edge and exist as Rayla surprised him by laying her head on his shoulder.

Yep, definitely content.

* * *

[Wind Through The Willows](https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ddIg_j5-U/)

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I don't know what I should call this one. Soul Reality? Soul Worldbuilding? Soul Mirage? fuck if I know it doesn't even matter I'm never using it again
> 
> The only reason I used this song specifically is because I did a painting for it based off how it sounds translating to how it would look not taking into account the actual game level the track is from and I don't like how that painting turned out so I'm SALTY
> 
> Also PLSSSS maybe click the link under the provided image? It's a link to the actual art post on my Instagram pls give it a like I did at least try on it


End file.
